Though Facebook usually activates the Safety Check feature in extremely dire situations like the November terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead and the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 dead in June, a community can also trigger the feature — which is what happened on Wednesday in Charlotte and during the recent Chelsea bombing in New York that left 29 people injured.

A Facebook spokesperson told Mashable that the social media site has been testing a way for communities to activate Safety Check themselves. "When a significant number of people post about a specific incident and are in a crisis area, they will be asked to mark themselves safe through Safety Check. Once they do, they can then invite friends in the affected area to mark themselves safe as well,” the spokesperson said. "In certain circumstances, as a situation evolves, Facebook may decide to notify everyone in an area even after the community has already started using Safety Check."

Since the feature was first launched in 2014, it has improved significantly. "This year alone Facebook has activated Safety Check dozens of times and the community has triggered Safety Check hundreds of times since we started testing it in June," said a spokesperson.

Image: screengrab/facebook

With a rise in violence over the course of the past two days, the Charlotte community saw it fit to make use of the feature to reassure others of their safety.

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